Borrowing for the world

Marc Restellini opened his private museum Pinacotheque de Paris in 2007 with the idea of showing masterpieces borrowed from other collectors.
The museum has become a success, with more than 1 million visitors annually. The private museum has now opened a branch in Singapore, with doors opening to the public on May 30.
The first shows of the private French museum’s Asian offshoot are made up of three parts: a collection of more than 40 pieces of rarely seen Western art, a temporary show based around the queen of Egypt, Cleopatra; and the heritage gallery tracing the history of Singapore and Southeast Asia.
Works of luminaries like Rembrandt, Picasso, Monet, Modigliani and Pollock are the stars of the new branch’s permanent collection and have been lent by collectors and art foundations from Europe, the United States and Asia.
“People are willing to lend me their collections to share them with the public rather than lock them in bank vaults,” says Restellini, founder of Pinacotheque de Paris. The word pinacotheque is a Greek word meaning “exhibition room”.
The 51-year-old is an art historian and a Modigliani expert. His grandfather was the painter Issac Antcher whose works were promoted together with Modigliani, Soutine and Kisling – artists who contributed to the expressionist movement by art dealer Zborowski.
Restellini has contacts with many collectors, most of whom were his grandfather’s friends.
“His passion and love for art makes collectors trust him and willing to lend,” says Suguna Madhavan, chief executive of the private museum’s Singapore branch, located at Fort Canning Hill, Singapore’s oldest historical site that was once Palaces of the Malay Sultans.
She recalls an Asian collector agreeing to lend Restellini millions of dollars worth of art after the director gave him a guided tour through the museum.
Restellini curates shows by forming a dialogue between arts of various styles and genres and finding a common link between them.
His inaugural exhibition displays Western masterpieces with Asian artefacts and artworks. Next to Modigliani’s “Young Lady with Earrings” is an ancient golden mask from East Java dating back about 2,000 years. The young lady’s face in the painting seems similar to the ancient mask. So is the face of Soutine’s Bellboy and a mask from Timor placed next to it.
He also places Southeast Asian artworks such as stone figures and pillars, with Western paintings by artists like Jackson Pollock.
The heritage gallery has relics and artworks from Southeast Asia to pay tribute to the city and the area.
The temporary feature show, “The Myth of Cleopatra”, displays about 200 works including sculptures, paintings, theatre and decorative arts. It was previously shown in the museum’s Paris branch and is now travelling to Singapore. It runs through October 11.
Restellini says Singapore was just a natural match when he was looking for a destination for his museum’s new branch outside Europe.
The museum director has long felt the future of art is in Asia. Now that his international expansion has arrived in Singapore, he says chances are he will display more Chinese art.
Last month he was invited to China to be a guest speaker at an art forum in Beijing. “If one day I plan to open a new Pinacotheque, it may be in China. Maybe in Shanghai, and I will mix Western art with Chinese art,” says Restellini
Restellini’s connection with China started with a Terracotta Warriors show in 2008. When he flew to Xi’an in Shaanxi province, a year before the show, he was informed that the Louvre also wanted it. But his private museum secured the project.
Restellini’s Pinacotheque is rare in Paris where most museums are publicly funded or supported by foundations.
“I think I paid enough respect to my Chinese cooperators. Maybe the Louvre was just too arrogant,” he says.
The 20 Terracotta Warriors unearthed in 1974, together with traditional Chinese arts like Chinese calligraphy attracted about 800,000 visitors in 2008. It became one of their most successful exhibitions alongside shows of Pollock, Munch and Modigliani.
Restellini is also proud of the exhibition of Chinese-French artist Chu Teh-Chun, who was level with Zao Wou-Ki, a well-known Chinese-French artist in France.
One of his collectors lent him a painting by Chu when he had no idea who the artist was. He was so impressed by Chu’s work that he put it into the permanent collection of Pinacotheque de Paris, the first French museum to include Chu’s work in its permanent collection.
Then he met the artist’s son. He decided to hold a solo show for the then 94-year-old painter. On March 26, 2014, just as Chu’s show at the museum ended, the artist died.
“What I enjoy is gathering works from collectors with my own vision. Collectors are usually surprised by how I display their items with other arts,” Restellini says.